Michigan

Clement Chiwaya gives a presentation in his political science class at Aquinas College in 2002. Since graduating, Chiwaya has become a Parliment member in Malawi. He spoke before the TEDxGrand Rapids conference on May 7, 2014.
(MLive file | Katy Batdorff)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — In the United States, people do not typically see someone in a wheelchair and think, "Oh, God must have cursed that person."

But in Malawi, a landlocked country in southern Africa, that’s an unfortunate stigma attached to people with disabilities, said Clement Chiwaya, a Malawian Parliament member educated at Aquinas College who was back in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, May 7 to speak at the TEDxGrand Rapids conference.

“Growing up as a kid was not as easy as you would think,” said Chiwaya, a polio survivor. “Every time I’d play with a car toy, friends would tell me "You will never drive a car," he told the TEDx audience at the Civic Theatre.

"I drive a car today."

Chiwaya was one of more than a dozen speakers at the fourth annual TEDx event, an invite-only franchised version of the well-known TED conference held in southern California.

He gave a short pre-lunch presentation, in which Chiwaya credited his education and sponsors in Grand Rapids as helping him achieve a prestigious legislative position as the chief whip of the United Democratic Front party in Malawi.

Chiwaya attended Aquinas from 1998 to 2002 after showing up in Grand Rapids with $500 in his pocket and a dream of a U.S. education.

Since his graduation, he’s been able to help bring medical clinics, schools, student scholarships and fresh drinking water to his impoverished African homeland.

As a role model, he’s also been able to help fight social stigmas, he said. By occupying a position of respect in Malawi, he said attitudes toward people with disabilities are changing.

His U.S. college education "empowered me to stand out in my community and try to remove that perception that a person with a disability can't amount to anything," he said Wednesday before his Ted Talk.

He returns to Grand Rapids on occasion to help facilitate things like educational scholarships for Malawian girls. The city has changed significantly since he left Grand Rapids in 2002 with a degree.

Chiwaya said elections are taking place in Malawi on May 20.

“Our elections are not media-oriented,” he said. “It’s more personal. You really have to go out and campaign,” he said. “You have to hold rallies.”

Although the country is poorly developed and has been grappling with a recent corruption scandal, he said Malawi is one of the few African countries where politics hasn’t sparked war and strife.

“Politics has never destroyed the fabric of our community,” he said. “That’s something I’m proud of.”